Altaic languages

Altaic is a language family which includes 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and Far East. The relationships among these languages remain a matter of debate among historical linguists, and the existence of Altaic as a family is rejected by many. Some scholars consider the obvious similarity between these languages as genetically inherited, others propose the idea of the Sprachbund.

Related Topics:
Language family - Language - Central Asia - Far East - Sprachbund

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Its proponents traditionally considered it to include the Turkic languages, the Mongolian languages, the Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus); to these, most modern proponents add Japanese and Korean. Ainu has occasionally been suggested as a member of Altaic, but this theory enjoys much less support.

Related Topics:
Turkic languages - Mongolian languages - Tungusic languages - Japanese - Korean - Ainu

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~